One is tempted to plunge into mystical depths when speaking upon such a
text as this, but I wish to resist the temptation now, and to deal with
it in a plain, practical fashion. Of course I need not remind you, or
do more than simply remind you, that the matter in question here is no
perception by sense of Him who is invisible, nor is it, either, an
adequate and direct knowledge and comprehension of Him who is infinite,
and whom a man can no more comprehend than he can stretch his short arms
round the flaming orb of the central sun. But still, there is a relation
to God possible for sinful men when they have been purified through the
faith that is in Jesus Christ, which is so direct, so immediate, that it
deserves the name of vision; and which, as I believe, is the ground of a
firmer certitude, and of a no less clear apprehension, than is the sense
from which the name is borrowed. For the illusions of sense have no
place in the sight which the pure heart has of its Father, God.
Only, remember that here, and in the interpretation of all such
Scriptural words, we have ever to be guided and governed by the great
principle which our Lord laid down, under very solemn circumstances,
when He said: 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' Jesus Christ,
whose name from eternity is the Word, is, from eternity to eternity,
that which the name indicates--viz. the revealing activity of the
eternal God. And, as I believe, wherever there have been kindled in
men's hearts, either by the contemplation of nature and providence, or
by the intuitions of their own spirits, any glints or glimpses of a God,
there has been the operation of 'the Light that lighteth every man that
cometh into the world.' And far beyond the limits of historical
Revelation within Israel, as recorded in Scripture, that Eternal Word
has been unveiling, as men's dim eyes were capable of perceiving it, the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God. But for us who stand in the
full blaze of that historical manifestation in the character and work of
Jesus Christ our Saviour, our vision of God is neither more nor less
than the apprehension and the realisation of Christ as 'God manifest in
the flesh.'
Whether you call it the vision of God, or whether you call it communion
with God in Jesus Christ, or whether you fall back upon the other
metaphor of God dwelling in us and we dwelling in God, it all comes to
the same thing, the consciousness of His presence, the realisation of
His character, the blessed assurance of loving relations with Him, and
the communion in mind, heart, will, and conduct, with God who has come
near to us all in Jesus Christ.
Now, I need not remind you, I suppose, that for such a realisation and
active, real communion, purity of heart is indispensable. That is no
arbitrary requirement, but inherent, as we all know, in the very nature
of the case. If we think of what He is, we shall feel that only the pure
in heart can really pass into loving fellowship with Him. 'How can two
walk together except they be agreed?' And if we reflect upon the history
of our own feelings and realisation of God's presence with us, we shall
see that impurity always drew a membrane over the eye of our souls, or
cast a mist of invisibility over the heavens. The smallest sin hides God
from us. A very, very little grain of dye stuff will darken miles of a
river, and make it incapable of reflecting the blue sky and the
sparkling stars. The least evil done and loved blurs and blots, if it
does not eclipse, for us the doers the very Sun of Righteousness
Himself. No sinful men can walk in the midst of that fiery furnace and
not be consumed. 'The pure in heart'--and only they--'shall see God.'
Nor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this, as in all these
Beatitudes, the germinal fulfilment in the present life is not to be
parted off by a great gap from the perfect fulfilment in the life which
is to come. And so I do not dwell so much on the differences, great and
wonderful as these must necessarily be, between the manner of
apprehension and communion with God which it is reserved for heaven to
bestow upon us, and the manner of those which we may enjoy here; but I
rather would point to the blessed thought that in essence they are one,
however in degree they may be different. No doubt, changed
circumstances, new capacities, the withdrawal of time and sense, the
dropping away of the veil of flesh, which is the barrier between us and
the unseen order of things in which 'we live and move and have our
being,' will induce changes and progresses in the manner and in the
degree of that vision about which it would be folly for us to speak. If
there were anything here with which we could compare the state of the
blessed in heaven, in so far as it differs from their state on earth, we
could form some conception of these differences; but if there were
anything here with which we could compare it, it would be less glorious
than it is. It is well that we should have to say, 'Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
that God hath prepared.' So let us be thankful that 'it doth not yet
appear what we shall be'; and let us never allow our ignorance of the
manner to make us doubt or neglect the fact, seeing that we know 'that
when He shall appear ... we shall see Him as He is.'